Thoughts Run Deep

I ran my personal best this past Saturday. I ran 13.94 miles (nearly 14 miles) – half a marathon. Two weeks ago I ran my personal best to that point – 10 miles. The week before, I ran 8 miles and the week prior to that – 6 miles. That’s in addition to 2 miles I run three times each week after dropping my boy off to orchestra practice before school. I’m not training for a marathon (although that is only because I never previously considered the possibility). I truly am doing it for my overall health – both physical and mental.

When I first began running several years back, I could hardly make it around the track without needing to stop and walk. From there I began to work my way up to being able to run a mile without stopping – then 2 and 3 miles. Prior to this year, my personal best was 5 miles which I ran on my 40th birthday two years ago. What previously stopped me from running further was the fact that I never considered that I could. It just didn’t occur to me. I never thought about it other than to dismiss it without further thought.

In December 2014, I attended a seminar in Phoenix titled, “Making 2015 Your Best Year Ever”. At the conclusion of this seminar I signed up for a program titled “5X”. Within the context of 5X, is the structure to not only take my office 5X, but also improve all aspects of my life 5X and to impact the lives of those around me 5X including my wife, my children and my staff. In order to begin this process, I challenged my office team to set a goal to improve their overall health starting in January. Each of them took up this challenge and, in my case, ran with it. Each month we will add another area of emphasis. For example, in February we set personal goals to help us become a more patient centric office. In March, we will set goals to improve our marriage or other family relationships. In April we will set goals regarding financial management. In May our goals will center around becoming the best team in town. In July our emphasis will be on developing our faith. With each month will come a new emphasis with the hope that we will continue working on the goals we have already started.

Each of us has a personal sphere of influence in which we can uplift and edify through positive reinforcement or we can tear down through negative comments. The words that proceed out of our mouths and our actions were first conceived in our minds. We are made up of the thoughts we allow into and entertain within the confines of our minds. Our thoughts, whether positive or negative will either lead toward or direct us away from our best selves. It is up to each of us to determine what kind of a person we want to become and what type of influence we want to have on those around us. The goals we set are first created as thoughts in our heads. If we don’t believe we can achieve something, we won’t. If we do believe we can achieve something, we will continue to think about it until we take action to make it happen. As Napoleon Hill states, “What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

As far as my office is concerned, I believe we can create the best eye care team in town that provides the best service in town. As an eye care professional I have the opportunity to impact the lives of many people. My goal of taking my office 5X has as much to do with improving my life and my family’s life as it has to do with increasing my ability to have a greater impact on my staff and my patients and, to a larger extent, my community.
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